David Hockney has been my favourite celebrity since I was a child. As someone who grew up in West Yorkshire, there are very few media personalities who I can claim as one of my own; visiting his exhibitions in Salts Mill is a fond memory, one of very few celebrities whose work I had the opportunity to see in person. When I was younger, I never even considered how different Hockney’s accent was compared to others around the country. After all, I grew up in an echo chamber of ‘mardy’ and ‘ta’. Now I’m older, I am very much aware of accent discrimination across the UK, and yet hearing him tell the BBC about the mockery he received for his Bradford twang was still a shock to the system. Hockney’s interview with the BBC iterates that even in 2025, accent discrimination is unfortunately still prevalent, something many people–particularly Northerners or those with strong regional accents–face daily at university or in the workplace.
When joining a Northern university, I wasn’t expecting to face discrimination for my accent. Despite this, the campus is full of students with RP accents, those who pronounce their vowels and ‘t’s ‘correctly’. Whilst most ridicule I face is simply friends poking fun, many others have had different experiences. At the University of Edinburgh, for example, a study found that over half of students from the North of England have “had their accent mocked in a social setting.” University culture has come a long way in the past 50 years, with the percentage of working class students in attendance increasing; 29% of those eligible for free school meals at 15 years old had entered higher education in 2022/23, doubling since 2005/06. Despite this progress, classism still prevails; stereotypes regarding accents play a significant part in this discrimination.
Russell Group universities are often associated with class and accent discrimination, but with the employment of access officers at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge–among others–they seem to be attempting to combat this. Employed to help ease those from state-educated backgrounds into university culture, they seem to be actively welcoming those from different backgrounds. However, with the percentage of state-educated pupils at Oxford University decreasing by the year, it seems that their efforts are making little difference within the classism that has weaved its way into tradition.
It isn’t just in university, however. Accent discrimination has been ingrained in British culture for centuries, and that’s not about to stop now. I spoke with John Hone Tito, co-founder of Game Host Bros, who shared his exposure to discrimination within the workplace. He told me that employees with regional Liverpool, Glasgow, and Newcastle accents have received confusion and questioning due to their dialects, only supporting the outdated beliefs that regional accents are perceived as low level and “associated with a lack of education.” Alongside this, John explained how when hiring, his company “unconsciously screened out nearly a third of applicants from working-class postcodes, just based on phone impressions.” This reiterates the assumed link between accent and class, the strict British hierarchical rule winning yet again. John has taken significant steps to reduce such discrimination in his company going forward, explaining how Game Host Bros have discarded voice screenings, opting for blind tests instead. He has already seen changes, and after hiring employees from Dundee, Cardiff, and Bradford, he conveyed the significance in “hiring talent,” over accents.
Danilo Coviello, founder of Espresso Translations is bilingual. Speaking Italian and English, he found himself facing discrimination from his associates: one suggested that someone else should deliver a pitch as it needed more “professional refinement”. Similarly, Danilo saw the backlash that Geordie and Scouse translators faced due to their accents that others believed lacked professionalism. One linguists’ Newcastle accent was described as a “distraction,” by a client, who requested a different linguist to replace them. Although Danilo’s company refused, choosing to stand up for their employees, this reiterates the prejudice that those with regional accents continue to face in the UK. Through his own experience, and after speaking to candidates who shared their experiences, he found that over the last year 30% of those interviewed by Espresso Translations minimised their accents, and others admitted to practising perfected dialects before meetings. Clearly, we tend to judge our own accents as much as others do, but it’s about time that changes. To see genuine progress, Danilo has stated that Espresso Translations hire candidates based on communication methods, not social class. In an effort to minimise such discrimination in the future, Danilo stressed that “accent clarity does not indicate social standing”.
Celebrities like David Hockney, along with actors such as Jodie Comer and Michael Sheen, are becoming more open regarding their experiences with accent discrimination, but it is still a significant issue at the forefront of British culture. It is about time universities take genuine steps towards educating students about such prejudice so that we do not see these issues filter into the workplace. If we begin to acknowledge this discrimination, we may see further acceptance of our own accents and a step towards equal opportunities in the UK.
Words by Melissa O’Reilly
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